It's been about 2 weeks since the last update, and 2 weeks since Better Than The Book "Two Years On" went live to the public! Lots of great feedback and responses to the album so far, and I've been busy with lots of other things too so there is much to share this week! Let's get started!

Firstly, as I've mentioned previously there has been some really great (and surprisingly detailed) feedback on the new Better Than The Book Album, Two Years On, especially on Newgrounds.com which has been a great community to be a part of since I started making music in my teen years. I've met a heck of a lot of good collaborators, clients and friends over there, and it's great to see them enjoying the new album. I can't post the reviews directly here, but if you're interested, please feel free to check out everyone's thoughts up on the  Newgrounds stream. If you've yet to have a listen and/or wish to write your own reviews, check out the album below, and if you reeeeaaaally like it, feel free to pick up a copy on Bandcamp or iTunes!
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Next on the list of things to share (also Better Than The Book related), Vlad from World Beyond has been super keen and created these lyric quote posters  for some of the songs on Two Years On! Thanks so much for the hard work Vlad! Creative commons licencing states that I have to say that the TV image was originally from here, but other than that, it's all Vlad! I wouldn't mind one of those badges too! Nicely done!

Onto other news, the past 2 weeks have been busy mainly with album promo stuff, working on some orchestral arrangements for a school in CA (which is almost finished), and starting audio work on the new Tales of Zale Animations from Sif Perlt Savery AKA Hikarian. Nothing specific I can report on those at the moment, but that does lead me to some upcoming things:

First of all, over the next few months I'll be uploading videos for each of the new songs on the Two Years On Album to the Better Than The Book YouTube Channel, one per week on Wednesdays. I may make some other videos while I'm at it, but these 12 videos are a definite! Going on a similar trend here, I've got a lot of portfolio work to add to my main HurpADervish YouTube Channel from this orchestral arrangements commission, so when that's all finished, I'll be uploading weekly videos for those as well (not sure how many there'll be at the moment). I'd like to get back into making some Jabun music at some point soon too, and try making some actual videos for that too, but we shall see how the time goes. Anything you guys'd like to see/hear from any of these projects? Feel free to leave a comment/suggestion below.

That's it for this week! What's coming up next? Well look out for those new Videos on the BTTB YouTube Channel soon, and I'll be getting on with working on Tales Of Zale Audio and finishing off this orchestral commissions in the mean time. Spring's just around the corner too and I've been meaning to do a proper clean/sort/rearrange of the studio since the album went out, so I'll get around doing that once things quieten down a little. More Jabun music soon, hopefully? I've been writing down lots of ideas and recording snippits on my phone a lot recently (more Better Than The Book too!). Anyways, I hope you all have good weeks and as usual, thanks for supporting JabunAudio! Take care everyone.

It's been a super busy week getting everything sorted for last night's release of the new Better Than The Book Album - Two Years On! It's been such a journey creating this piece of work, it seems almost crazy now that it's finally out in the open and done. As you might expect, much of this week's news is BTTB related. Let's get started!

Firstly, as previously mentioned, the "Two Years On" album is now ready to purchase on Bandcamp, iTunes and all major digital distributors (though I'd recommend bandcamp for the best choices in format and price). The full album is also up for free streaming in its entirety on SoundCloud, YouTube and Newgrounds, so feel free to visit those streams and leave your comments. I plan to release the individual tracks on the BTTB Youtube Channel for streaming soon too. 

As part of the pre-release hype campaign, Vlad from World Beyond also made this fantastic Lyric video for Track 02 Homecoming, and from the reactions I've been getting Facebooked and Tweeted, the hyping has definitely worked a treat! Thanks so much Vlad! Please check out the video below:

With regards what to say about the album, I think the music itself speaks more than I could explain in a few words here, but I'd like to share some kind words from Vlad's World Beyond Blog which mean a great deal to me. I won't say any more right now, but for a full list of credits, thanks (and if you'd like it to pick up a copy) please visit the Better Than The Book Bandcamp page. Without further hesitation, I present to you: Better Than The Book -  Two Years On
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All track were written, performed and produced by Nick Standing [Jabun], with additional writing and vocals from Bob Axell [Cyberdevil] on “Re: HipHopPunk” and “Head Above Water”. All samples used are either property of Nick Standing, royalty free, or are in the public domain (as appropriate). Artwork was drawn by Nick Standing [Jabun]. 

Going with the theme of the final track, Confessions (but not really), I do have  a HUGE confession to make on the release of this album. While the album was supposed to go out at midnight on February 6th on Bandcamp (which it did), I kinda made a mistake with the iTunes distribution dates, in that I couldn't figure out how to set a start date for sale, but the system said it'd take 2 weeks for it to upload to stores to I figured, I'll be out later anyway. Well... I figured wrong! In actuality, the album went live on the iTunes store on Thursday, but I kept it quiet because I hadn't got the Bandcamp release fully prepared yet! Well... now that the album's out (everywhere), it seemed like a good story to tell! Another funny story comes from when I was called out for all the samples I've used in track 05 Channel Surfing, and I was asked to provide evidence of my eligibility to use them (to which I obviously did. I'm a punk not a thief!). I feel like a true sampling musician/artist now!

Onto the other news for this week. The One Small Step EP also has made its way onto the iTunes store which is pretty cool! The rest of my week has been continuing with orchestral arrangement for a school in California which is going well and on schedule. It's certainly been a busy week though and I should probably take a line from my own lyric sheets and "Leave behind this laptop screen... shutdown my Windows, and step out of my door"! Even following this major project release, I don't think I'll be able to get rest straight away, but perhaps at some point!

Now you may be asking, what's next music-wise, since this album is finished? Well there are actually around 10 more Better Than The Book song ideas already (little recording snippits, riffs and lyrics), but I think I'll be taking a ska punk break for a while. I'd love to get back to doing Jabun (electronic/orchestral) again and hope to do an Album/EP this year, so that's the next major release you should expect next! I'll still be working with all sorts of projects to earn a living too though so we shall see how busy things get!

That's it for this week! I'm not actually sure whether I'm here next week or not, so there may be an update, but for now I'll say that I'll be taking a (well earned?) break from the blog next week. I hope you enjoy the new album, and please share it with anyone who you think would be interested. Until next time, thanks for supporting JabunAudio and I hope you all have a good week(s). Take care!